‘It was undeniable: the whole world was crazy.’
Fiction by Mary Gaitskill.
‘Donald Trump doesn’t use a computer. “He doesn’t even have an email address,” Stephanie, a lobbyist, said to me over lunch, lowering her voice as though revealing classified information.’
A portrait of Washington, D.C. by Antonia Hitchens.
‘August 7, 2066: an ordinary Saturday.’
Fiction by Rebecca Curtis.
‘He said society would collapse this year. I asked why this year. He referenced something the president had said. He said three families controlled the president.’
Tao Lin picks up a hitchhiker in Hawaii.
‘Being in another country is like / Being dead, you see how people / Go on without you’
Three poems by Patricia Lockwood.
Granta 176: American Berserk
Making Cuba Great Again
William T. Vollmann
‘Two men stood on the street – good enough for me. “And do you consider yourselves socialist or not?” I inquired.’
William T. Vollmann visits Cuba.
The Acute Wing
John Jeremiah Sullivan
‘The man did not remember the first four or five days in the hospital very well. He mentioned it, the localized amnesia, to one of the nurses, who said it was normal.’
Fiction by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
Intercession
Mary Gaitskill
‘It was undeniable: the whole world was crazy.’
Fiction by Mary Gaitskill.
Blood Boy
Hansen Shi
‘The key was to make everyone as indebted to you as possible.’
Fiction by Hansen Shi.
Dathun
Amie Barrodale
‘He gestured for me to sit, opened his little refrigerator, got out two Diet Cokes. “You like these right?”’
Fiction by Amie Barrodale.
Online Series | Resistance
Running Behind
Stephanie Wambugu
‘I missed a good portion of the outing and hoped the insult would come across.’
Stephanie Wambugu on chronic lateness.
Picture Me Crying
Rachel Connolly
‘Almost nobody has ever seen me cry. This has been true my entire life.’
Rachel Connolly on accessing vulnerability.
Things on Places
Jeremy Atherton Lin
‘The festoonery interrupts the usual, how things are meant to be.’
Jeremy Atherton Lin on resenting Christmas.
Principal Witness
Izabella Scott
‘The summons made clear that if I failed to turn up (which I had), a warrant could be issued for my arrest.’
Izabella Scott on court testimonies.
Free Botox
Amber Husain
‘I sensed, if you can believe it, that I was being fobbed off.’
Amber Husain on refusing free Botox.
From Granta 174: Therapy
Melanie Klein Among the U-Boats
Ben Parker
‘Whenever Richard mentioned Hitler, Klein unwaveringly substituted “Hitler” with “penis”.’
Ben Parker on Melanie Klein and child psychology.
Lacan in Tirana
Ardian Vehbiu
‘Psychoanalysis never truly took root in Albania during the early decades of the twentieth century and, after the communist takeover in 1944, it was actively suppressed by the regime.’
Ardian Vehbiu on Jacques Lacan’s visit to Albania.
The Narcissus Complex
Daisy Rockwell
‘What a great burden it was to be the artist son of a famous artist father.’
Daisy Rockwell on her father, painting, and her family’s psychoanalytic history.
The Vegetarian
Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
Winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature
Yeong-hye and her husband are ordinary people. He is an office worker with moderate ambitions and mild manners; she is an uninspired but dutiful wife. The acceptable flatline of their marriage is interrupted when Yeong-hye, seeking a more ‘plant-like’ existence, decides to become a vegetarian, prompted by grotesque recurring nightmares. In South Korea, where vegetarianism is almost unheard-of and societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye’s decision is a shocking act of subversion. Her passive rebellion manifests in ever more bizarre and frightening forms, leading her bland husband to self-justified acts of sexual sadism.
Fraught, disturbing and beautiful, The Vegetarian is a novel about modern day South Korea, but also a novel about shame, desire and our faltering attempts to understand others, from one imprisoned body to another.
